The Snake and the Hound
by LordoftheInsects
Summary: Kakashi, along with the rest of Team Minato, is in mourning. Obito is dead. Kakashi has the sharingan and Orochimaru is developing his curse seal. Sarutobi always told him that he would have to teach a student someday.
1. Prologue

**Okay, so this is set just after the Kannabi Bridge Mission in which Kakashi is transferred to be taught by one of the sannin, Orochimaru, who isn't as evil in this one, kind of danzo-ish, (He is still malicious and not a very good person but he isn't evil) and see how it progresses from there. This one is attempting to be serious. The last one was too and look how that turned out. I'm putting all of this at the beginning because I just finished the chapter and I'd feel like an asshole putting anything after it.**

Once back in the village, Kakashi let all calm pretenses go and sprinted to his apartment, as did Rin, though she hadn't had any such pretense to drop. No thought was spared for Minato, who just flashed to his apartment and collapsed, numb. After all Obito Uchiha, the bright happy idiot that everyone openly or secretly loved, was dead. So fuck protocol. Team seven had been maimed, and all the members felt the effect.

Eventually, Minato after being summoned by an ANBU, had delivered the solemn news to the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Rin had a breakdown and hadn't left her room or eaten for two days before her sensei had forced her to eat and held her while she sobbed.

But Kakashi had not done any of those things. When the yellow flash came to check on him, he was gone, trashed apartment in his wake. Mirrors were shattered, tables split, kunai sticking out of lamps, scorch marks on a pulverized bed that was found under the rubble of a wall that had collapsed upon being hit by a water jutsu powerful enough to explode the sink it had been blasted out of. Minato did something he was ashamed of. He teleported to a seal that had been placed on his student without his knowledge.

He appeared at training ground 8 and narrowly dodged a lightning covered fist coming towards his head. He caught the boy's wrist on the seconds swing and knocked the kunai out of the other before pulling him close into a tight embrace.

"Why wasn't I good enough. Why couldn't sense it coming?" Kakashi whispered into his shirt.

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault. Never yours. Never."

Kakashi looked at him for the first time in two days. Onyx and spinning red and black staring listlessly at him. Tears only fell from the sharingan, past the first stitches, down over the mask. The other eye just stared.

"Why?" He murmured, voice barely audible, "WHY CAN'T I CRY FOR HIM?" His voice carried out into the silence of the training ground, echoing among the scattered kunai.

"Why can't I cry? Why only his eye? Why can't I feel anything?"

"Shhhh Kakashi, it will be fine. It will be fine. It will be fine. It will be…." Finally, after holding it in for two days for the sake of his students, Minato Namikaze, tool of the village began to cry. Eight nin dogs approached quietly, nuzzling up to their master and master's master. The silence of the training ground was broken only by the sobs of teacher and student, teacher and hound, student and hound, and hound and hound, holding each other, mourning for a friend.


	2. Chapter 1: Not His Fault

**First chapter was short but it was the prologue so whatever. This should fix it. For the record, Kakashi's tanto is not broken here. I researched it a bit and there should have been no reason for it to break. So instead it was knocked out of his hands before he killed the stone nin with chidori.**

The Third Hokage, known to some as the Professor, God of shinobi, or just Hiruzen Sarutobi was frowning. He seemed to be doing that far too often as of late. War takes a toll on all who are involved after all. Even leaders that have to appear stoic and unaffected by the carnage and death of war. Hiruzen, perhaps knew that best of all. Having lived through all of the shinobi world wars to date, a soldier in the first, ending it as hokage, led through the second world war, and was working on ending the third as he contemplated all of this. But presently he was frowning over the loss of a young chuunin. Obito Uchiha had much potential, and to any other kage that may have been all that matters, but to Hiruzen, he had lost a kind, friendly boy, and a fifth generation student of a line of teachers since the First Hokage. And he had been killed two weeks ago in the line of duty. And thus, Hiruzen had a far more severe frown than usual on his aging face.

But he was a leader and he couldn't afford to only contemplate one death. He had to notice the effects on other shinobi who had been close to him. And the effects were not good. His ANBU had reported some of the worst results he had seen since Dan had died, 16 years earlier. Reportedly, Rin Nohara hadn't left her house in two weeks and was refusing to eat. Minato Namikaze was hurtling through S-rank missions faster than he could give them. And if he wasn't on a mission he wasn't anywhere he could be found. Not even Kushina could find him. Kakashi hadn't left the training ground he had been in for the past two weeks. While he was getting stronger quickly, and he couldn't deny it, the boy hadn't properly rested in far too long and was going to need medical attention very quickly if he didn't take a break from non-stop training for a few days.

Any other twelve year old he could order into bed rest and they would obey. And so would Kakashi. But bedrest would last a few hours at most, and then he would be back to training.

He would send him on a mission but his squad leader was gone on yet another suicide mission.

Suddenly the realization hit him. Kakashi was a jonin now. He may only be twelve but he was a jonin. Send him on a few missions. Let him blow off some steam. Get his mind off the tragedy.

He spoke, seemingly to nothing, "Bring me Hatake Kakashi."

He felt a chakra presence leave his office.

Five minutes later there was a puff of smoke and Kakashi was there.

"You wanted to see me Lord Hokage?"

"Ah yes Kakashi. Are you alright?"

"Yes Lord Hokage."

And he was lying. But that wasn't important as he spoke, "Good. A mission has come up and we have decided it is a good first solo mission as a newly minted jonin."

Kakashi spoke then and said what Hiruzen had been expecting but still disappointed that it was said. "Forgive me Lord Hokage, but I don't think I deserve this rank any longer. With-"

"No," Hiruzen interrupted, "The results of the prior mission was by the definition of the word a success. But to anyone that knew Obito Uchiha, it was a failure. Myself included. But that mission should not determine your success. Tsunade lost people close to her as well, including her lover, but that does not make her any less deserving of her title as one of the three Sannin. Do not allow this tragedy to cloud your career. Allow it to make you stronger. Grieve, but do not let the memory of Obito hold you back. It is unbecoming of one of my jonin, and pitiful if you go downhill due to it. You may be young, and that makes you impressionable. Allow the impression that you gain from this tragedy be the need to make your team proud, Obito included, and strive to be the best ninja you could possibly be in this world of bloodshed and death. Now then, are there any more reservations on taking this mission?"

A pause.

"No Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen for the first time in weeks, smiled. "Good. This assignment is an A-rank solo mission in case anyone asks. It is not classified but please try to not share the details until it is complete. Send in the client."

A rather well dressed man entered the office.

"This is Kakashi Hatake, he will be your escort. Kakashi, this is Akihiro Katsu. He is a merchant who was near Konoha when he received a death threat from a group of rogue nin and samurai called the Madoka. It is your job to protect him on his way to the village hidden in the grass, his next destination on his journey."

Akihiro spoke up, "Ah Lord Hokage, is this boy really qualified for this. Has he had enough training?"

"Of course Mr Katsu. He is the greatest prodigy of this generation and possibly the last couple. You will be fine."

"Alright Lord Hokage. But if I die, I'm haunting you."

"Of course."

He leaves. Hiruzen turned to Kakashi, "You will be leaving in two days, make sure you rest."

"Of course Lord Hokage." Kakashi shunshins away. Hiruzen turns to one of the corners of his office, "Fox, keep an eye on him."

Fox leaves just as the door opens and a tall man walks in with long, black hair, earrings, and snake-like eyes enters. He speaks, "That boy is certainly interesting, don't you agree dear sensei of mine?" His voice like honeyed sugar, but with a quiet menace that sometimes, Hiruzen feels like only he notices.

"Yes Orochimaru, he is a very interesting boy indeed. Now, why have you chosen now to visit?"

He smiles and for a moment Hiruzen tenses but relaxes unnoticably.

"Well sensei, I was thinking it was high time for me to pass on my legacy, just like Jiraiya and Tsunade. I just wanted your blessing and advice on how to teach properly before I go talent scouting."

Something deep inside Hiruzen told him not to give him his blessing, said it would make the world worse. But this was his student. He taught him everything he needed to become stronger. His mind told him it was a bad idea, "Yes of course Orochimaru. As for advice lets see here…."

 **And that concludes the much longer first chapter where dear Orochimaru pops in for a visit. And now Kakashi's on a mission in two days. This could be interesting.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Shuriken Ninja

**And welcome back to yet another installment of I'm bored so I'm typing! This week on the show we have chapter two! What's that you say? Why am I typing chapter two? I'M BATMAN! Sorry for the delay. Writer's block like you wouldn't believe.**

* * *

Two days after his meeting with the Hokage, Kakashi awoke at 7 on the dot. He went through his morning routine, which is to say, making eggs and bacon that were eaten in an instant, brushing his teeth, quick shower, without his mask, so he set up several seals that would temporarily blind anyone who entered the bathroom (A lesson given to him by his sensei on his 11th birthday), He got dressed and went to meet his client at 7:30.

He had only been waiting at the gate for three minutes when his client approached on a wagon, drawn by two worn, old oxen. Upon seeing him slouched against the gate, arms crossed, he gave a cheery, enthused, "Morning!"

Kakashi's only visible eye crinkled into a replica of a smile, "Same to you Katsu-san."

The man looked practically giddy at the ninja returning his greeting, (Apparently he had travelled with ninja escorts before.) and patted the spot next to him in the front of the wagon in welcoming. Kakashi saw the gesture and quickly apologized, "I would love to Katsu-san but someone has to watch your back while we travel and I wouldn't be able to carry out the function you hired me for otherwise."

Akihiro looked noticeably disappointed, "Ah that's alright."

Kakashi sighed, "Though underestimation is always good. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." A single clone poofed into existence and sat next to the merchant, "Katsu-san, I will be in the trees. That clone is there for your protection. You can converse with him as you would me. He won't bite. Probably. I will be in the trees."

He bit his finger and formed four hand signs quickly before striking the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

Eight dogs appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Form a perimeter around the wagon when we're moving and sniff out threats. Go."

They blurred off as Kakashi turned to his client and asked, "Are you ready to leave?"

There was a pause as Akihiro gaped at where the dogs had sat just a moment before, before he shook his head, muttered something about ninjas and their techniques before smiling and saying, "Ah, of course. Let us go."

Kakashi nodded before taking to the trees like his dogs. Not long after, the lone merchant and shadow clone began their journey to grass country, escorted by eight ninken and a jonin.

From the shadow of an alley nearby a famous snake summoner watched them leave. Orochimaru smiled. The sharingan, a summoning contract and ability to quickly summon eight dogs, not to mention a loneliness that he could easily exploit. The boy was rapidly showing himself to be the perfect student. However the juinjutsu he had been working on for so long was still volatile, and required other tests before it was ready. He had a final test subject in mind, and if she successfully withstood the cursed seal, then Kakashi would be his ultimate creation, the perfect ninja. The man smiled.

* * *

For the first two days there was no trouble. The merchant-ninja duo just rode and slept and ate and there wasn't any problems. On the third day, Kakashi's mission report would later read, a problem occurred.

One of Kakashi's shadow clones was on watch at one in the morning when he heard a telltale whistling before the clone's visible eye narrowed and twisted quickly to the right to evade the hail of shuriken that buzzed past the clone's ear. A lesser clone might have tried to engage the enemy with what he had available, but he was not a lesser clone. He was the clone of Kakashi Hatake, prodigy child, who would one day be hailed as one of the strongest ninja in the world. So he did what any silent assassin would do when encountering a foe that he didn't know the location of. He yelled. Really loudly. And in that moment a shuriken caught the clone in the back of the head and vanished into a puff of smoke. Kakashi would later tell that this was the first time the peculiar side effect of Kage Bunshin saved his life. The yell combined with the sudden memory of an unknown threat had the original Kakashi Hatake up and moving, quickly followed by all eight of his dogs. An unknown threat was a situation all eight dogs had trained for however and they quickly vanished into smoke. Despite the situation Kakashi smiled, he really had trained them well. Pulling the summoning scroll from one pocket he quickly bit his thumb, smeared his blood on it, and pushed the scroll into the ground.

"Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu!" He heard the faint puff of smoke beneath the dirt and smirked underneath his mask.

"What's going on?" Akihiro asked as he emerged from his wagon only to yelp as Kakashi shoved back into the wagon out of the way of another hail of shuriken back into the wagon. Kakashi hissed, "Stay down. Lock the door of the wagon. Don't come out until I give the okay."

As soon as he finished giving those instructions he whirled, unsheathing his tanto and knocked another four shuriken out of the air. The threat had quite the penchant for shuriken it would seem. He heard a bark and darted in it's direction to find a man, tall and lanky held down by his dogs. The man wore a standard uniform for the land of lightning. He had a full face mask made of a mesh that Kakashi couldn't see through attached by a strap going around his head. A head of brown hair could be seen on the other side. Before Kakashi could make any further observations the man turned into a log. Kawarimi no jutsu. Kakashi quickly dismissed his ninken before he heard, presumably from the enemy nin, "Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken no Jutsu!"

From a nearby bush a dozen or so shuriken-like bolts of lightning whizzed towards his face. Kakashi threw himself to the left and pulled up his headband revealing a blazing sharingan with two tomoe, whirling dangerously.

But he wasn't quite fast enough as a burning pain erupted in his arm as a lone lightning shuriken caught his arm and left a long gash across his bicep.

He quickly formed the snake seal and struck the ground, "Doton: Tsuchi Nami no Jutsu!"

The earth rose and fell shooting out towards the place where the shuriken had originated, but Kakashi was already moving, launching himself back to the wagon to protect his client.

He landed atop the wagon discreetly forming hand seals and muttering, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu." Inside the wagon his sharingan could see their water supply forming a human shape and slipping out of the barrel, and putting a finger to it's now rapidly coloring face mask to shush their client. The clone then discreetly removed a floorboard and hopped down and hid in a tree.

Now ready, Kakashi scanned the area with his sharingan, he glanced upwards just in time to see the wagon's assailant drop from above armed with a giant shuriken. Kakashi flipped backwards just as one end of the giant shuriken impaled where he had just been standing. The man darted forwards slashing at the boy just to be blocked by a tanto.

In that instant Kakashi reached into his weapon pack and pulled out a kunai knife, whirled it and swung at his face. For several moments they danced on the roof before Kakashi dropped to the roof of the wagon and kicked out in the same motion rolled off of the wagon and while his hands were underneath him and unable to be seen by the shuriken wielding ninja substituted with his water clone just as the clone hit the ground the lightning country ninja hit the ground lashing out with the shuriken in his hand.

The clone blocked two blows before the third caught him across the chest turning him to water.

Kakashi knowing that would happen as that was the plan had already started forming hand seals as the nin had jumped from the wagon, "Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu."

Before the water from the clone had even struck the ground it formed into a human sized dragon and smashed the ninja into the tree that Kakashi was hidden in.

Kakashi quickly formed eight more hand seals, before striking the tree and calling out, "Raiton: Hiraishin no jutsu!" Lightning arced along the tree coursing into the nin's water coated body.

He howled in pain as the lightning arced through his body. He spasmed and then stopped lying still.

Kakashi approached cautiously, eyeballed him with his sharingan to ensure he was unconscious and then quickly shoved his tanto into the man's brain. He twitched once and then slumped, dead." Kakashi breathed hard for a moment before quickly pulling his headband down over his eye before it consumed more chakra and summoned three of his dogs to him, all he had the energy left to do without collapsing on the spot and ordered them to check the perimeter before slumping to the ground in front of the corpse breathing hard.

In five minutes Kakashi had regained his breath just as his dogs appeared, Bisuke quickly informing him that they were clear. Kakashi breathlessly nodded. He stood. "Form a perimeter all three of you. Alert me of any more threats if they appear."

Pulling a sealing scroll from a pouch on his leg, he quickly put the body in it.

Following that he pulled a bandage from the same pouch and went about bandaging the gash on his arm.

Once that was finished he slowly walked over to the wagon and called out, "Katsu-san. We're in the clear we should go though. Now."

The door to the wagon creaked open slowly and Akihiro slowly poked his head out. Upon seeing Kakashi he let out a sigh of relief. He stepped out of the wagon gave a quick glance to Kakashi's bandaged arm before closing the wagon behind him. He smiled at Kakashi, "You know," he said, "I had my doubts that you were a ninja that could defend me in a situation like this. Sorry about that."

Kakashi crinkled his eye into a smile.

Akihiro smiled back.

Kakashi spoke then, "If you don't mind, I'll need to be seated for a little while. Mind if I join you up front?"

Akihiro's smile widened, if such a thing was possible. He now looked like an enthused chimpanzee. With this grin upon his face he spoke, "I was hoping you would ask that."

They climbed into the front of the wagon and began to travel again.

An hour later Kakashi was asleep.

The rest of the mission was smooth. Akihiro got to the land of grass safely and was able to drop off his goods and Kakashi began the long trek back to his village.

But if he knew what was happening at the village he may not be so zealous to get back.

* * *

Back in the village a girl with short purplish hair was walking alone outside of the academy. She sat down on a swing that always seemed to be the home of the shunned and alone. She was going to be graduating tomorrow and she wondered if she would be able to pass the test. She sighed and slumped on the swing unaware of a man that was watching her. He wasn't watching in a pedophile like way. He was gazing at her the way a mad scientist observes how the intestines of a horse writhed and spurted blood when placed under far too much electric energy.

"Yes the man thought. She would make a perfect final stage test subject."

* * *

 **So how was that for an action scene. Take that people who say Karachi can't win a fight against a competent ninja without using chidori or raikiri! I worked very hard on it. Also, LONGER CHAPTER! YAAAAAAYYYYY!**

 **For your benefit, I have included a complete list of all of the jutsu used in this chapter and their english translation! Also I will mention if they already existed or if I just made that shit up!**

 **Jutsu List:**

 **Kuchiyose no Jutsu- Summoning (Pre-existing)**

 **Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu- Summoning: Earth Style: Tracking Fang (Pre-existing)**

 **Kawarimi no Jutsu- Substitution (Pre-existing)**

 **Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken no Jutsu- Lightning Style: Lightning Shuriken (Original)**

 **Doton: Tsuchi Nami no Jutsu- Earth Style: Earth Wave (Pre-existing)**

 **Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu- Water Style: Water Dragon (Pre-existing)**

 **Raiton: Hiraishin no Jutsu- Lightning Style: Lightning Rod (Original)**


End file.
